Amidst renewed speculation about the imminent elevation of Rahul Gandhi as Congress president, Union power minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that any such development would only strengthen the B
Amidst renewed speculation about the imminent elevation of Rahul Gandhi as Congress president, Union power minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that any such development would only strengthen the BJP’s resolve for a “Congress-mukt Bharat”. “That only strengthens our case for a Congress-mukt Bharat,-" Mr Goyal on Wednesday evening told city reporters when the matter was brought up.
Despite reports about elevation of the 45-year-old Gandhi family scion as Congress president doing the rounds, Congress dismissed any such immediate possibility even as Sonia Gandhi remained tight-lipped on the issue.
Meanwhile, Mr Goyal said that the government had decided against dragging the US to WTO for its alleged violation of the world trade body’s norms on renewable energy as it wanted to get a favourable response from the Americans through bilateral discussions. “The US has requested for bilateral consultations which we have readily agreed to. The commerce ministry is in dialogue with them. We believe that dialogue is a better way in sensitive subjects like renewable energy,” he told reporters.
The minister further said that the government had found 16 instances of violation of norms regarding local content requirement under the National Solar Mission and their lawyers had been working on filing cases since April. However, he made it clear that the government was engaging with the US only for a favourable outcome. “As long as the bilateral resolution is in our interest, we are open to it,” he stressed.
Furthermore, Mr Goyal said that his ministry would be focusing on the wind and hydel power fronts next year, having achieved good success on the solar side in the past two years. On the hydel front, he said that there were concerns around certain environmental issues, studies of river basins and also smaller hydel plants that were struggling. On the wind front, he said that the thrust would be on robust technology for scheduling and forecasting, expanding from state grids to regional grids, and get more transparency.
